The University of Tennessee at Martin received a Research Facilities Act Program grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to build a cold food processing facility within the university’s Tennessee Entrepreneurial Science and Technology (TEST) Hub, which began construction last April.
Funded by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2022, the TEST Hub is a $19 million facility that will combine educational facilities, entrepreneurial centers and manufacturing workshops surrounding a shared industrial makerspace on the UT Martin campus.
The Research Facilities Act Program, or RFAP, is designed to provide financial assistance to qualifying institutions for the construction, modernization, renovation or remodeling of agricultural research facilities to conduct research in the fields of food and agricultural sciences.
UT Martin received close to $400,000 in grant funding along with matching funds to help build a cold food processing facility within the TEST Hub, totaling about $1 million in funding for the facility.
The grant was made available through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dr. Todd Winters, dean of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, is a co-project director for the grant.
“The reason this is important is that equipment works differently at room temperature than it does in cold temperatures,” he said. “This new facility will actually be able to go down to close to freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit); we can’t go below freezing because we’ve got a water supply in the facility, and that would freeze that.
“Companies like Williams Sausage of Union City – which is now owned by Tyson – and Pictsweet down in Bells, all have an interest in this facility. If they have a problem that they think is due to cold temperatures, our faculty and our students can put their heads together with the people from the companies to figure it out.”
Dr. Nancy Buschhaus, dean of the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, is also a co-project director for the NIFA RFAP grant.
“Adding the cold food processing facility at the TEST Hub helps UT Martin to gain multiple advantages both on campus for our students as well as off campus for our community, combining interdisciplinary learning and workforce development opportunities in cold food storage and manufacturing at a regional comprehensive university,” she said. “The addition of this facility will allow a collaborative space where students from engineering, biological sciences and agricultural sciences can work with faculty to advance what is known about food science, storage and production, as well as provide a pathway for regional food businesses and industry partners to form partnerships with the university to examine ways to boost productivity.
“This cold food processing facility will essentially convert campus infrastructure into both an academic resource and an economic multiplier.”
Other people and entities at UT Martin who helped with the grant proposal were Physical Plant Director Dana Hagan; Lesa Finch, grant specialist in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs; and Alisha Melton, executive director of Research, Outreach, and Economic Development.
“We are really excited,” Winters said. “This facility will provide assistance to the growing food manufacturing industry. We’ve had a lot of calls from industry folks who have a need for employees with training in food manufacturing, food safety and quality assurance.
“A year ago, we started a certificate program in food safety and quality assurance here. Our original plan was to do a full major, but we didn’t have the resources at the time to do that. That still can be something we can do in the future.”
NIFA invests more than $121 million in research facilities projects to 36 universities across the country to modernize, expand and build state-of-the-art agricultural research facilities. These investments support the construction and renovation of laboratories, greenhouses, livestock and aquaculture centers and integrated research hubs that advance food and agricultural innovation.
Winters said the cold food processing facility would enhance several fields of study at UT Martin, including agricultural engineering technology, manufacturing engineering, food and nutrition, agriculture, biology, animal sciences and plant and soil science.
For more information about the UT Martin College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, visit www.utm.edu/caas. For more information about the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, visit www.utm.edu/cens.
For more information about UT Martin, visit www.utm.edu or call 731-881-7000.
PHOTO: Construction on the Tennessee Entrepreneurial Science and Technology (TEST) Hub on the UT Martin campus is shown in this Oct. 24 photo. The university recently received an NIFA Research Facilities Act Program grant that would fund a cold food processing facility in the TEST Hub.
